A North Charleston civil rights activist wants the Lanxess chemical company to close its facility near Rosemont or buy residents’ homes so they can move away from the accident-plagued plant.
“This plant is a danger waiting to happen,” Elder James Johnson, CEO of the Racial Justice Network, told two company officials at a recent meeting with Rosemont residents. “This plant needs to be out of this community or give these people more than the value of their property and let them get out of here because [the plant] is going to kill them.”
Concern about the plant’s safety was heightened again following a June 21 release of 10 pounds of phosphorus from a clogged pipe attached to a storage tank, the third mishap the German-owned plant reported in the past four years to S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).
A highly toxic gas leaked May 24, 2022, from the plant, just north of Rosemont in Charleston’s Neck area, and another chemical leak with a fire was reported Nov. 28, 2019.
Rosemont resident Jackie Moore said when she heard the recent alarm she came out on her porch, but she didn’t detect a chemical order. However after the 2019 chemical release at the plant, it “smelled like fingernail polish, and it was so strong it cut [my] breath … [and] gave me a headache,” she said during the meeting. She didn’t seek medical treatment.
Any hint of a problem at the plant reminds residents of the June 17, 1991, explosion when it was owned by Albright & Wilson. A massive explosion killed nine workers and injured dozens.
Following the June 21 mishap, S.C. Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, whose district includes the chemical plant, asked plant officials to meet with residents.
Gilliard was an employee at the plant during the 1991 explosion. Following that tragedy, the former plant owners notified residents of on-site accidents “but apparently that has fallen by the wayside,” Gilliard said.
When the plant sounded an alarm June 21, residents said they weren’t told of the chemical release or whether they should shelter in their homes or leave the area. Nancy Button, president of the Rosemont Neighborhood Association, said she was notified of the incident the following day through an email from the company. “That is not appropriate,” she said.
In a statement released during the recent meeting, Lanxess said, “We recognize the community’s concerns and share in the common top priority of promoting a working place that is safe for its employees and for the surrounding community. … We recognize the need to do better and will continuously work towards improving our site protocols.”
The company said it is investigating the most recent release, which did not cause injuries, according to the company and the Charleston Fire Department. When asked to respond to Johnson’s call for the company to close the plant or buy residents’ houses, site manager Michael Jansen declined to comment.
“This isn’t the 1950s and 1960s anymore,” Johnson told the company, referring to a time when developers “redlined” people into predominantly Black neighborhoods like Rosemont near industrial sites.
During the meeting, Jansen told a half dozen residents he feels safe at the plant.
“We do everything to produce chemicals that have a very big benefit for the society that you might not see,” he said. “We produce the chemicals in a safe way.”
What do you make at that plant?
Lanxess has 90 employees at the 122-acre site where it manufactures phosphorus trichloride and numerous derivative products, such as flame-retardant additives and intermediate products for the agrochemicals industry.
Johnson asked R. Keith Frost, DHEC’s assistant bureau chief in the Bureau of Air Quality, whether residents know what chemicals are made and stored at the plant. The company and DHEC can’t release that information because of limitations under federal law, Frost said.
In June 2022, the Charleston City Paper sought to report on the plant’s risk management plan, but the newspaper was warned that doing so would violate federal law.
The plant’s risk management plan includes a worst-case scenario that assesses the off-site consequences of what “may or may not” occur in the unlikely event of a catastrophic accident. The public can view the worst-case scenario document, but with restrictions. Publicizing its contents, however, is prohibited by federal law due to its sensitive nature, officials said. A written request to DHEC is required to view the document.
“That [information] should be in our hands because we live right next door to [the plant],” said Rosemont resident Maggie Bannick. “That does not make any sense because we don’t know what is there.”
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